Creating a Better World: Interpreting Global Civil Society

In a world riven by global conflict and struggling to build effective global governance, the crucial missing ingredient is global civil society. Rupert Taylor and his colleagues here provide a guide for how recent protests inform efforts to build a global civil society on which our very survival may yet depend.
--Anthony W. Marx, Professor of Political Science and President, Amherst College

This extraordinary volume displays several strengths, such as critical engagment with labour organizations and the wave of NGOs, and a sustained theoretical reflexivity. This is a compelling read.
--Jan Nederveen Pieterse, University of Illinois

*Takes an interdisciplinary approach to interpreting global civil society

*Contributors are some of the leading theoreticians in the field
*A sound handbook for activism



The term "global civil society" has become a catchphrase of our times. But efforts to define and interpret what global civil society actually is have led to ambiguity and dispute. This major work of scholarship and advocacy pierces through the generalizations and debates. It presents cogent examples of groups within civil society--from the Seattle and Genoa protesters to transnational grassroots movements, such as Slum/Shack Dwellers International--that are creatively meeting the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly interconnected world.



The contributors offer clarity and the hope that another world is possible--one in which civil society’s global networks can effectively create a free, fair, and just global order. Scholars, students, and anyone interested in understanding new forces influencing contemporary world politics will want to have this book on their shelves.



Rupert Taylor is Associate Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has written widely in the areas of South African politics and the Northern Ireland conflict. Publications include articles in African Affairs, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Peace and Change, Race and Class, The Round Table, and Telos. He is currently editor of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.